Sabres defeat Senators in shootout

OTTAWA --Sam Reinhart had a goal and an assist, and the Buffalo Sabres defeated the Ottawa Senators 4-3 in a shootout at Canadian Tire Centre on Thursday.
Marco Scandella and Scott Wilson scored for the Sabres (22-35-11). Robin Lehner made 37 saves to remain unbeaten in regulation against the Senators (6-0-3).

WATCH: [All Sabres vs. Senators highlights]
"It's just like when a goal scorer hasn't scored in a while," Lehner said of winning his first shootout since Dec. 13, 2014, when he was with the Senators. "When you get your first one, you get a confidence high."
"Robin played well and played strong coming back here," Sabres coach Phil Housley said. "Especially in the shootout, I thought he made some key saves, obviously to set it up for [Jacob Josefson's] winner, but good for him that he played a solid game and had a really good shootout."
Ryan Dzingel had two goals, Thomas Chabot scored, and Craig Anderson made 31 saves for the Senators (23-32-11).

"It was fun playing with those two guys," Dzingel said of playing alongside Matt Duchene and Mike Hoffman on the first line. "They were going tonight. It was a lot of fun. I haven't had that much fun in a while."
"The three of us were really clicking tonight," Duchene said. "I think we were a little unfortunate to only get two [goals] as a line, to be honest. I thought we were all over the ice tonight."
Scandella gave the Sabres a 1-0 lead at 17:26 of the first period when his point shot got through a maze of bodies and beat Anderson glove side.
Dzingel tied it 1-1 when he took a pass from Duchene in the slot and beat Lehner over the glove with a wrist shot 36 seconds into the second period. Dzingel scored again at 3:26 when he one-timed a pass from Hoffman to make it 2-1.
Reinhart tapped a rebound into an open net to tie it 2-2 at 14:23.

"When things aren't going well it's going to be a quick play that kind of turns things around for you," Reinhart said. "We needed a bounce-back game from last night [a 5-1 loss to the Calgary Flames] and it was nice to gut that one out."
Chabot made it 3-2 at 17:30 when he capped off an odd-man rush with a wrist shot over Lehner's glove.
Wilson scored off his own rebound 27 seconds into the third period to tie it 3-3.
"The guys rallied again," Housley said. "Short bench and guys playing a lot of minutes on a back-to-back night. The guys dug down. It was a really solid effort on their part."

Goal of the game

Wilson's goal 27 seconds into the third period.

Save of the game

Lehner's save on Magnus Paajarvi 2:00 into overtime.

Highlight of the game

Josefson's game-winner in the shootout.

They said it

"I think our focus and the response we made tonight was a great response. After having a, I would say, poor effort in our own building, with travel coming out here, I liked the way we started. We were physical, you could see the determination in our players, and from top to bottom everybody contributed tonight." -- Sabres coach Phil Housley
"I couldn't believe it. At the start of the period, that probably goes in with the fresh ice, but end of a period. … It literally died right on the goalpost. I haven't seen one that close probably ever." -- Senators forward Matt Duchene on Hoffman's near goal in the second period

Need to know

Sabres forward Kyle Okposo left in the second period with an upper-body injury after he collided with Senators forward Bobby Ryan, and will be re-evaluated Saturday. … Reinhart has 17 points (seven goals, 10 assists) in his past 16 games. … Senators forward Jean-Gabriel Pageau had a NHL career-high eight shots on goal. … Senators forward Mark Stone extended his point streak to 10 games. He has 15 points (two goals, 13 assists) during the streak.

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What's next

Sabres: Host the Vegas Golden Knights on Saturday (1 p.m. ET; MSG-B, ATTSN-RM, NHL.TV)
Senators:Host the Calgary Flames on Friday (7:30 p.m. ET; TSN5, RDS, SNW, NHL.TV)